How to counter self-doubt in the media agency bell jar

Strategy Leaders

MediaCom’s Matt Delaney explains how agencies can create better conditions to look after the mental health of their strategists.

Last Friday was “Time to Talk” day at MediaCom. We closed the agency, let our clients know, asked everyone not to work; a chance to reflect and regroup our mental health away from the inbox.

While one half of my mind was present in the moment as I enjoyed a walk in the woods, the other half was effectively still at my keyboard fretting about what I might write in this column and, most cripplingly, what people might think of it.

Stress permeates all roles in media agencies, but I find that the introspective stress that comes with a strategy role to be uniquely draining.

As strategists our thinking is our commodity, and that thinking is hard to switch off.

Strategic judgement can, at times, feel personal, so the anxiety-inducing adrenaline is almost always pumping to pre-emptively protect one’s ego.

Lockdown and home-working exacerbated this significantly. The reassurance gained from fast informal feedback in the office was lost and we were largely left alone with our thoughts.

The trait of perfectionism is common amongst strategists, but for some it gave way to self-doubt and a feeling of lonely futility.

Pitching was particularly bleak when restrictions were high.

Meanwhile our jobs become more complicated by the month as landscape evolution quickens, generational crises arrive, and the pressure for new and innovative thinking increases. LinkedIn and ‘Strategy Twitter’ keep this front of mind with a side helping of professional narcissism to boot.

All of this is leading to some bad outcomes. Not specific to strategists, but over a third of ‘adland’ staff say their mental health has been poor or very poor in the last 12 months (NABS & Mind, 2021).

Primarily I find this troubling on a human level, but, commercially, agencies can do more to ensure valuable strategists are happy at a time when many are reconsidering their life priorities.

64% have considered leaving the industry entirely at some point because their wellbeing was being affected by their work.

Alongside positive agency mental health initiatives, creating the right conditions to counter introspective self-doubt can unshackle strategists to enjoy their job more.

Better strategic collaboration

I agree wholeheartedly with Eva Grimmett’s piece The future of strategy – is it a case of all hands on deck?; better strategic collaboration is both liberating and effective.

We have introduced a ‘whole-brained’ approach to strategic pairings, matching more creatively talented strategists with analytical strategists on accounts and briefs.

This works to not only generate stronger strategic outputs, but to give fast validation through a strategic ‘buddy system’.

Agile practices

I’ll admit that strategy was, at first, a little resistant to Agile transformation at MediaCom (see perfectionism trait above).

But Agile practices have now made interdepartmental communication and collaboration easy, giving strategic visibility on a weekly or daily basis and broadening the scope of opportunity for specialist input.

Bottle-neck thinking bottle necks stress, so frequent and small stress relief is healthier than infrequent and big.

Stimulation

Matt Delaney

As strategists, we work apart with client teams more than we work together as a team.

It’s too easy to ‘go native’ on a client and limit your scope for inspiration, more so in a hybrid world.

We make sure we spend at least one team day a week together in the office and use that time specifically to share with and borrow from each other.

A simple exercise during each team meeting is to each present 5 minutes on something interesting we’ve read in the past week.

Sounds straightforward enough, but the process of breaking down what we’ve read in order to present it not only makes us read things better, it also enlightens twelve people instead of one.

The positive discourse this brings suggests it is a useful way to relieve the feeling of pressure that you don’t read enough.

As society is thrown into another concerning period of history, it’s going to be important that we look after our professional mindsets.

To get the most out of this job that we love, be sure to take a walk in the woods when you can, but also try to be unburdened by taking a break from self-doubt.

Matt Delaney is joint head of strategy at MediaCom. 

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